Baidu SEO: How to optimize for China’s biggest search engine

Speak to pretty much anyone about SEO and the rhetoric will largely be in regards to the “Big G”. It makes sense. Google has a worryingly large share of the search engine market, especially in Europe and the US, so why would SEOs spend additional time trying to capture traffic from the lesser-used search engines? However, unless you’ve been a conspiracy theory style recluse for the last two decades, you will have noticed that China is a country with a rather large amount of people, and this comes with new opportunities. The Chinese market represents significant opportunity across the board. Admittedly, the opportunities within ultra high growth manufacturing businesses may not be what they were a decade ago but for those willing to make the jump there is the opportunity to tap into one of the world’s largest economies. The problem? The Chinese search market is one of the only places in the world where Google is not King; they’re not even heir apparent (they almost totally exited China a number of years ago). Baidu rules the roost in China, so if you want to tap into the Chinese search market, you best get acquainted. First of all: Get used to the differences China is a very different country to those found in ‘The West’, to the point that there are a number of businesses which specialize in helping companies bridge the gap between the regions. Heavy state censorship is but one of the not-so-subtle differences. Much like doing business with,…